Heather, The Totality by Matthew Weiner

Synopsis

Mark and Karen Breakstone have constructed the idyllic life of wealth and status they always wanted, made complete by their beautiful and extraordinary daughter Heather. But they are still not quite at the top. When the new owners of the penthouse above them begin construction, an unstable stranger penetrates the security of their comfortable lives and threatens to destroy everything they've created.

The cover of this book says it's a novel. But I must have a different definition of a "novel" because this felt more like reading a storyboard. Like the author was putting together a timeline of how the book was going to be laid out and thoughts for where the plot would go . . . but then he would go back and fill it in with more details, dialogue, etc. 

It jumps from one thing to the next so quickly that I was never sure what I was supposed to pay attention to or what little details would be important. You'd think with such a short "novel" that every piece of it would be an important ingredient in telling the full story . . . instead, I was reading the elevator pitch for a full novel. 

It's rather unfortunate, too, because there is something here with this plot and the characters. It could have been something and perhaps become a really good actual novel if it had any life to it. I didn't feel any passion in the author's writing. It felt like he sat down at a computer and banged out this so-called novel in one afternoon and then called it a day. 

He also should have fired his editor. The amount of run-on sentences and the sheer word count of the word "and" were mind-numbing. 

1/5 stars. 1 star because it's a good base. But the writing is lazy and I refuse to believe this is a finished product. 

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U is For Undertow (Kinsey Millhone #21) by Sue Grafton

Synopsis

It's April 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone's thirty-eighth birthday, and she's alone in her office catching up on paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he'd be carded if he tried to buy a beer, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout.

He tells her a story. More than two decades ago, a four-year-old girl disappeared, and a recent newspaper story about her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her secret burial and could identify the killers if he saw them again. He wants Kinsey's help in locating the grave and finding the men. It's way more than a long shot, but he's persistent and willing to pay cash up front. Reluctantly, Kinsey agrees to give him one day of her time.

It isn't long before she discovers Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he's the boy who cried wolf. Is his story true, or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?

Moving between the 1980s and the 1960s, and changing points of view as Kinsey pursues witnesses whose accounts often clash, Sue Grafton builds multiple subplots and memorable characters. Gradually we see how everything connects. And as always, at the heart of her fiction is Kinsey Millhone, a sharp-tongued, observant loner who never forgets that under the thin veneer of civility is often the roiling dark side of the soul.

U is For Undertow is another installment in the Kinsey Millhone series. But, if you weren't aware of that going in, I could see how it may fool you. Because it's a Kinsey Millhone novel . . . with a severe lack of Kinsey. 

This is due to the novel traveling back and forth in time between the 60's and the 80's and between points of view. You get the perspective of 4 different characters, including Kinsey. I had no idea how it was all going to come together in the end, because they all seemed like completely different stories. 

It was a strange book where a lot happened, and it was fairly long, but it didn't really go anywhere until the very end. I understand having to lay down the full background and what led up to Kinsey investigating the case of a missing child from about 20 years prior, but I just didn't care about most of it. 

I could have lived without McNally's perspective. Corso was interesting. Deboroah Unruh's was necessary to paint the story with how it played out. Had the novel just flipped back and forth between Kinsey and Jon Corso, I feel like it may have had some more life and would have been more interesting - much like for T is for Trespassing flipped between Kinsey and "Solana Rojas". And that book kept me on the edge of my seat, especially at the end. 

There were just too many peripheral characters in 'U' that I didn't care about. Some of the chapters became a chore. 

And again - there was a severe lack of Kinsey. 

3/5 stars

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Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

Synopsis

"Simon Glass was easy to hate....I guess, really we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn't realize it until the day we killed him."

Fat, clumsy Simon Glass is a nerd, a loser who occupies the lowest rung on the high school social ladder. Everyone picks on him -- until Rob Haynes shows up. Rob, a transfer student with charisma to spare, immediately becomes the undisputed leader of the senior class. And he has plans for Simon.

Rob enlists the help of his crew -- wealthy, intellectual Young, ladies' man Bob, and sweet, athletic Coop -- in a mission: Turn sniveling Simon from total freak to would-be prom king.

But as Simon rises to the top of the social ranks, he shows a new confidence and a devious side that power-hungry Rob did not anticipate. And when Simon uncovers a dangerous secret, events darken. The result is disquieting, bone-chilling...and brutal.

Shattering Glass was an interesting reading experience. Nearly all of the characters were hard to like for one reason or another - including the horrendous "Bro"-type speak - but the story was compelling enough to push me through. 

I think a lot of that also had to do with the unique way the book was written. Each chapter started out with a testimonial from a character in the book from a time years ahead from when the main story takes place. Each statement alludes to something horrible happening with the POV main character, Young, in the center of it. The thing is, it paints him as the bad guy. Meanwhile, in the book's "present time", Young is regarded as a nice, smart kid. I probably made that sound more complicated than it was. But I have to credit that storytelling style for keeping me into the book, because I needed to see what happened and what went wrong. 

I'm just thankful it was all wrapped up at the end and didn't leave me guessing. That would have been an infuriating end to the book. 

Other than that, the plot just seemed so cruel and really played into teen stereotypes - which it what it was trying to do. I don't think anyone came out a winner at the end of the book. I suppose it offers a look into what happens when average teen shenanigans go too far to the extreme. 

2/5 stars

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The Wife by Alafair Burke

Synopsis

From New York Times bestselling author Alafair Burke, a stunning domestic thriller in the vein of Behind Closed Doors and The Woman in Cabin 10—in which a woman must make the impossible choice between defending her husband and saving herself.

When Angela met Jason Powell while catering a dinner party in East Hampton, she assumed their romance would be a short-lived fling, like so many relationships between locals and summer visitors. To her surprise, Jason, a brilliant economics professor at NYU, had other plans, and they married the following summer. For Angela, the marriage turned out to be a chance to reboot her life. She and her son were finally able to move out of her mother’s home to Manhattan, where no one knew about her tragic past.

Six years later, thanks to a bestselling book and a growing media career, Jason has become a cultural lightning rod, placing Angela near the spotlight she worked so carefully to avoid. When a college intern makes an accusation against Jason, and another woman, Kerry Lynch, comes forward with an even more troubling allegation, their perfect life begins to unravel. Jason insists he is innocent, and Angela believes him. But when Kerry disappears, Angela is forced to take a closer look—at both the man she married and the women she chose not to believe.

This much-anticipated follow-up to Burke’s Edgar-nominated The Ex asks how far a wife will go to protect the man she loves: Will she stand by his side, even if he drags her down with him?

 

The Wife is a fun, quick thriller. It's a great afternoon read or a book to work your way through over a weekend. It's not super long and it's not super dense. 

It's a classic story of murder being committed and the questions surrounding who is responsible. Is it the man whose life is spiraling out of control? The wife who wants to believe him? Is something more sinister going on?

It didn't take very long for this book to grip me and suck me into the journey. I became invested in the characters and in the storyline. I had to see how it all ended. 

If you want a mystery that's easy and quick to read, give this one a shot. 

4/5 stars

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The Coast-to-Coast Murders by James Patterson

Synopsis

A detective and an FBI agent join forces on what seems like an open-and-shut case—but a new rash of killings sends them on a pulse-pounding race against time in this intense thriller.

Michael and Megan Fitzgerald are siblings who share a terrifying past. Both adopted, and now grown—Michael is a long-haul truck driver, Megan a college student majoring in psychology—they trust each other before anyone else. They've had to. Their parents are public intellectuals, an Ivy League clinical psychologist and a renowned psychiatrist, and they brought up their adopted children in a rarefied, experimental environment. It sheltered them from the world's harsh realities, but it also forced secrets upon them, secrets they keep at all costs.

In Los Angeles, Detective Garrett Dobbs and FBI Agent Jessica Gimble have joined forces to work a murder that seems like a dead cinch. Their chief suspect is quickly identified and apprehended—but then there's another killing just like the one they've been investigating. And another. And not just in Los Angeles—the spree spreads across the country. The Fitzgerald family comes to the investigators' attention, but Dobbs and Gimble are at a loss—if one of the four is involved, which Fitzgerald might it be?

From coastal California to upstate New York, Dobbs and Gimble race against time and across state lines to stop an ingenious and deeply deranged killer—one whose dark and twisted appetites put them outside the range of logic or experience.

This book is largely responsible for breaking me out of my reading slump early in the year. (Note: yes, I read this early in the year. I'm getting caught up on writing reviews. It's been a crazy year!) 

After I absolutely devoured this book, I NEEDED to jump into another novel immediately because I had such a great time on this journey. Luckily for me, the next book I read was The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope and that was also an incredible read. So, suddenly I was out of my slump and enjoying reading again instead of not being able to focus. 

But it all started here. 

The Coast-to-Coast Murders is one of the best Patterson books I've read in a long time. It's a crazy journey that tells a story of how powerful the mind is and how insidious mental illness can be. Or how the mind can be warped into working against you. 

This book is full of action. It's full of mystery. It's full of suspense. And it had one of the most gruesome death scenes I've ever read. 

Plus, it truly had me shocked at the end when everything was wrapped up. I never saw the twist coming which was exhilarating to me. 

5/5 stars

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The Stories You Tell (Roxanne Weary #3) by Kristen Lepionka

Synopsis

A late-night phone call is never good news, especially when you’re Roxane Weary. This one is from her brother Andrew whose evening was interrupted by a visit from Addison, a hip young DJ he knows from the hotel bar where he works. She was drunk, bloody, and hysterical, but she wouldn’t say what was wrong. After using his phone, she left as quickly as she appeared, and Andrew is worried. That’s when he calls Roxane.

But another late-night call occurs as well: Addison’s father calls the police after getting a panicked voicemail from his daughter. The only thing he could understand is the address she gave in the message—Andrew’s. Before long, the police are asking Andrew all about why there’s blood in his apartment and what he did to Addison. Meanwhile, another cop is found dead on the opposite side of town, leading to a swirl of questions surrounding a dance club whose staff—which includes Addison—has suddenly gone AWOL.

When I started this book, I didn't realize it was part of a series. Not to mention - the third book in a series. Unfortunately, I haven't read the first two. So this was my first introduction to Roxanne as a protagonist. 

It was quite the interesting story to follow and there were twists and turns all over the place. I was never really sure where it was going to go. But I was invested, so I kept following it. 

Every attempt to get answers unlocked even more questions. And it ended up being more twisted than I imagined when I started it. But the end was sort of frustrating.

I'd be interested to read the first two books in the series one of these days. 

3/5 stars

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The Family Lawyer by James Patterson

Synopsis

THE FAMILY LAWYER with Robert Rotstein: Matthew Hovanes is living a parent's worst nightmare: his young daughter is accused of bullying another girl into suicide. But this loving father is also a skilled criminal defense attorney. And something here doesn't add up...

NIGHT SNIPER with Christopher Charles: Cheryl Mabern is the NYPD's most brilliant detective--and the most damaged. Now she must confront her darkest fears to stop a calculating killer committing random murders.

THE GOOD SISTER with Rachel Howzell Hall: Her beloved sister's cheating husband has been found dead. Now, Dani Lawrence must decide if she will help the investigation that could put her sister away...or obstruct it by any means necessary.

This book was three stories in one! It starts with The Family Lawyer which is a great thriller about family dynamics and the things that can go so wrong in high school. 

Then there is Night Sniper which shows the terrifying double life that some people can lead. 

It ends with The Good Sister which is also a winding and weaving tale about wild family dynamics and how far some people will go for revenge and loyalty.  

Each of these stories could have been their own full length novel, but they were great bite-sized thrillers all packed into one package. They were more well-rounded and enjoyable than the Bookshots that Patterson has released. So that was a plus in my book. As much as I wanted to love to Bookshots, they just seem forced and rushed. There's an art to forming a well-rounded shorter story. 

If I had to rate them individually, I'd say they're already in order from best to worst. I enjoyed The Family Lawyer the most and was actually bummed out when it ended. I wanted to know more about how the characters would progress. 

The Good Sister was the weakest of the trio, but it was still a fun read. 

I'd definitely recommend picking this one up and jumping into some thrilling stories. 

4/5 stars

Memorable Quote: "There's something I've learned during my years on the job: a broken man will let himself hear what he's always wanted to hear." - Night Sniper

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Fear No Evil (Alex Cross #29) by James Patterson

Synopsis

Alex Cross enters the final showdown with the relentless killer who has stalked him and his family for years.​

Dr. Alex Cross and Detective John Sampson venture into the rugged Montana wilderness—where they will be the prey. They’re not on the job, but on a personal mission. 

Until they’re attacked by two rival teams of assassins, controlled by the same mastermind who has stalked Alex and his family for years. 

Darkness falls. The river churns into rapids. Shots ring out through the forest. 

No backup. No way out. Fear no evil. 

Another installment in the Alex Cross series! Unfortunately, this one didn't really do it for me like most of the others have. 

The parts that were most interesting to me were when it flashed to Bree on her new job assignment in Paris. I love to see her character going down a different path from where she had been with DC Metro. 

Other than that, Alex and John were being hunted down by rival groups. But it didn't make much sense to me that they would be coming after them as hard as they were. And a lot of that storyline seemed to . . . out there and unrealistic to me. Even for a fiction novel. 

I was also angry that John's dream vacation got ruined. 

This was a book I just powered through because I care about the characters. It definitely wasn't a gem in the Alex Cross series. 

3/5 stars

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Deadly Cross (Alex Cross #28) by James Patterson

Synopsis

A scandalous double homicide in the nation's capital opens the psychological case files on . . . Detective Alex Cross.

Until Kay Willingham's shocking murder inside a luxury limousine, the Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and ex-wife of the sitting vice-president led a public life. Yet few -- including her onetime psychologist -- had any inkling of Kay's troubled past in the Deep South.

Murdered alongside her is Randall Christopher, a respected educator whose political ambitions may have endangered both their lives. While John Sampson of DC Metro Police tracks Randall's final movements, Alex Cross and FBI Special Agent Ned Mahoney travel to Alabama to investigate Kay's early years.

They discover that although Kay had many enemies, all of them needed her alive. Alex is left without a viable suspect, and facing a desperate choice between breaking a trust and losing his way -- as a detective, and as the protector of his family.

A crime that reaches across so many different states with connections to many high-profile characters - including Alex Cross himself. 

Deadly Cross was one of those series installments that pulls you in right from the beginning and doesn't let go until you race through the pages. It featured a truly baffling crime that had so many potential suspects. And it kept me guessing until the very end. What a ride!

And we get a new level of character development for Bree Cross, which is always fun. If you enjoy the Alex Cross series, I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy this book. 

5/5 Stars

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Shine by Lauren Myracle

Synopsis

When her best guy friend falls victim to what seems like a vicious hate crime, 16-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice.

Against a backdrop of poverty, clannishness, drugs, and intolerance, Myracle has crafted a harrowing coming-of-age tale couched in a deeply intelligent mystery. Smart, fearless, and compassionate, this is an unforgettable work from a beloved author.

Even after reading the synopsis for this book, I wasn't quite prepared for how dark and sad it got at times. It deals with some really harsh topics such as racism, addiction, sexual assault, LGBTQ hate crimes, and questions about sexuality, and more. All of that was packed into a relatively short novel. The fact that it didn't feel disjointed and forced speaks a lot to how well the book is written. 

There were times it made me feel uncomfortable. There were times it made me sad. There were times it got me to smile. Its definitely a story of the power of love and a coming-of-age story about the importance of family. It's a real look into how trauma can touch so many lives in so many different ways.

At first it kinda seemed like it was trying to be one of those young adult books where some kid or young teenager solves all the problems of a small town. But it ended up being so much deeper than that, and I really appreciated it in the end. 

It's not an easy read due to the topics, but it is written well and goes pretty fast. 

4/5 stars

Memorable Quote: "That was the problem with lying to yourself. Sometimes you got too good at it."

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